DOVER — On the 10th day of the Christina Thomas trial, several friends and family members of the defendant wept as the prosecution asked Thomas' 17-year-old son Jacob to read a letter he wrote years ago.

When the boy was 15 years old, he and his four brothers were taken by the state Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) amid an investigation into allegations 34-year-old Thomas and her mother, Peggy Starr, abused and starved the young child of a friend in their New Durham home.

Jacob Thomas became emotional as he read the letter aloud to the jury in Strafford County Superior Court Wednesday, after an intense cross examination by Deputy Strafford County Attorney Alysia Casssotis. Cassotis asked the teenager if he recalled a paddle near the fireplace or wooden spoon being used on the boy, now 9 years old, or his mother.

Jacob Thomas responded several times with a faint, “I don't know,” or, “I don't remember” but stated adamantly he and his siblings were never physically abused by family.

But when Cassotis asked Jacob Thomas to read a letter he wrote as a younger man, he expressed his fervent view then that his family, and his home life, is largely misunderstood by the people accusing his mother of wrongdoing in this case. Christina Thomas could face 10 to 30 years imprisonment for first degree assault on the child, for allegedly starving him from 2006 to 2010.

“I know you might think my family's weird and overextended, but we like it,” Jacob Thomas said as he read what he wrote to the family court when asking for his siblings to be reunited. “…I know the difference between abuse and neglect and that did not happen in our home.”

Thomas, who lives on Birch Hill Road in New Durham, sat in her chair at the defense table and cried as a bailiff handed her a box of tissues when her son spoke. One member of the Thomas group left the room to cry in the hallway, as Jacob Thomas continued to read.

Defense attorney Steven Keable called a few witnesses to the stand Wednesday, who testified they never saw Christina Thomas abuse the victim in this case. The boy was found to weigh about 23 pounds a few months before his seventh birthday in 2010.

Jason Laskey, a roommate of the Thomas household, said when he lived with the Thomas “brood,” he was there with almost a dozen others, many of whom assisted with preparing meals for the children, including the victim, in the home.

Thomas' husband, Michael Thomas, also testified he never wanted the victim's biological mother, a 34-year-old mentally handicapped woman and old friend of his wife's, to live with them. Under cross examination, he insisted the victim was not his own child so he paid more attention to the six other children in the home, some of whom are his. He said two children were fathered by another roommate in the house, Kevin Tulley.

“We are not (the boy's) parents,” Michael Thomas, 37, stated. “We are not (his) caretakers. Christina was not (his) caretaker.”

The state is attempting to prove not only that Christina Thomas knowingly starved the boy for years in her home, but that she was at that time the primary caretaker of the victim. Michael Thomas added his wife was never legally the boy's guardian — “she had a big heart,” he said — to which Cassotis asked the man if he knew the principal of the New Durham School at the time asked Christina multiple times to sign papers accepting responsibility.

Family members on the stand also testified the boy constantly threw up and ruminated so the adults in the household would remove the boy's plate for “a minute or two” to let his stomach settle before returning the food again. They also said a lock was placed on the refrigerator because it wouldn't shut properly, and only junk foods were locked away to keep the children from eating through a long-term supply of afterschool snacks.

Cassotis asked witnesses in cross examination if the boy's diet was limited, which some said included a regular diet of tofu-based meals and special pediatric milkshakes, to keep the boy from getting ill. Michael Thomas testified he and Christina conducted their own research online to resolve the boy's strange behaviors and determined a gluten-free and semi-vegetarian diet may be best.

Witnesses have also said the boy ate his own feces in his younger years and drank from the toilet, which some said could explain the boy's strange dietary issues medical experts labeled in a “failure to thrive” case.

Michael Thomas additionally said he saw the boy's biological mother place the boy in a snow bank, and not Thomas' mother, Starr. The 55-year-old suspect who will face a trial in April for second degree assault related to accusations she placed the boy, naked, in a cold stream and a snow bank. Michael Thomas stated he also saw the biological mother kick her son across the floor as punishment once.

Cassotis asked Thomas' husband if he knew all of this before, why didn't he include it in his reports to the New Durham Police Department, to which Michael Thomas said, “I should have.”

Cassotis brought up with Michael Thomas whether he had a say in the decision to allow his wife to recently register her car with new vanity license plates that read, with some altered spelling, “not guilty.”

Jacob Thomas stressed in his testimony the victim, whom he grew up with, was never punished for his conditions. He said rather than being placed in “time outs,” he remembered the boy being rushed to the bathroom when he began to vomit. The 17-year-old also reviewed several family photographs provided by the defense on projected screen, which showed him along with his siblings and the victim laughing together at family events and smiling in family portraits. One photograph showed two boys riding Christina Thomas and the victim's mother in horse saddles inside the house.

During the proceedings, two jurors raised their hands at separate times to say they recognized witnesses at the stand. One juror said she recognized a testifying relative of Thomas' and another said he recognized a testifying employee from Community Partners. The defense agreed both jurors could continue sitting on the jury after they swore they would remain impartial before the court.

The defense has a few more witnesses to call to the stand today and it is still unknown whether Christina Thomas will take the stand herself in this case. Keable previously told Foster's that is still being “discussed.” Judge John M. Lewis said he believed the trial would wrap up on Thursday earlier this week.